


Hush, Now

by ClassyFangirl



Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Pre-Canon, Pre-Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-18
Updated: 2013-10-18
Packaged: 2017-12-29 19:19:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 705
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1009079
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ClassyFangirl/pseuds/ClassyFangirl
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hermann is upset and Newt tries to cheer him up. It either goes horribly wrong or horribly right- he's not sure.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hush, Now

**Author's Note:**

> A prompt fill for a request on tumblr. c:

Hermann’s been unnervingly quiet all day. He hasn’t reacted to the exceedingly loud Rolling Stones coming out of Newt’s speakers, hasn’t complained about a thing- when Newt deliberately threw a piece of lung across the dividing line, Hermann only sighed and said, “Please do not.”

So Newt _knows_ something’s wrong.

“Oh! Oh, dude, I remember this one from MIT.” Newt turns down the volume of his music and clears his throat. “Old mathematicians never die; they just lose some of their _functions_.”

Hermann doesn’t say anything. God damn it.

“Okay, okay, here: a mathematician is a blind man in a dark room looking for a black cat which isn’t there.”

Hermann just sighs at that, but not one of his exasperated sighs. A real heavy, almost down-trodden sigh. Shit, Newt’s gotta step up his game.

“God is real, unless proclaimed integer,” he tries.

“I’m _working_ ,” Hermann says. Progress! Sort of.

“Hardly,” Newt says. “You’ve written, like, half a line of equations today. You keep getting further and further and then you erase it all- what’s the _point_ , man? If you’re stuck, just take a break.”

“I am not _stuck._ ” But it lacks the venom it ought to have behind it. Hermann sounds like he’s barely convinced himself that what he’s saying is true.

“You kind of _are,_ dude.” Newt crosses over to Hermann’s side of the lab and pats his shoulder. “C’mon! We can get a late lunch. I know _I’m_ starving. Just take a step back, man.”

“No- I need to- I need to-” Hermann’s voice breaks, and there are tears rolling down his cheeks. “I- I need to- oh, _Gott_...”

Newt _stares_. Hermann doesn’t cry. Hermann is a _rock_. “Hermann? Hermann, dude, are you- are you okay?”

Hermann shakes his head, his lips quivering. He cannot seem to hold himself together any longer, and a sob escapes him.

Newt’s never seen Hermann anywhere _close_ to a state like this. “Hey, hey, Hermann, buddy, it’s okay! It’s okay, dude, let’s just- shit, here, let’s-” He wraps a hand around Hermann’s arm and guides him to the couch in the back corner of the lab. He sits Hermann down first, then grabs the thick blanket that fell behind the back of the couch. Newt carefully drapes it across Hermann’s lap, then sits down next to him, putting one arm over his shoulders and the other on his chest.

“It’s okay, man,” he says, trying to be as soft and gentle as possible, even though he’s getting _awfully terrified_ by seeing Hermann like this. “It’s okay. Just- just let it out. I’m here. I’m here.” Newt rubs gentle circles against Hermann’s flat, skinny chest as he sobs. “It’s all right. It’s all right.”

He takes his other hand and gently runs his hand through Hermann’s hair. He lets his fingers trace gently along his scalp, not really massaging, just barely touching the skin.

Slowly, slowly, Hermann stops crying. “I’m sorry,” he says hoarsely. “I didn’t mean to...lose control in such a way.”

“Dude, it’s fine.” Newt moves his hands under the blanket so they can grasp Hermann’s. “You...wanna tell me what’s wrong?”

Hermann sighs and squeezes Newt’s hands gently. “I received a rather unfortunate call from my father this morning. He wished to offer me another chance to join him at the Wall of Life program. When I turned him down, he said some...unkind things. I have spent many years trying to prevent his words from ‘getting to me’, if you will, but it can be difficult.”

Newt frowns and readjusts the blanket so it covers more of Hermann. “Jesus. What a _dick_.”

Hermann chuckles at that. “I can’t say I disagree.” He relaxes for a moment, leaning into Newt’s side. “We...should get back to work.”

“Nah. It can wait.”

Hermann, for a moment, looks like he’s going to argue. But then he nods and smiles slightly. “Well, all right. I suppose it can wait. Just this once.”

“Totally, dude.”

They sit together like that for a long while. Hermann falls asleep with his head on Newt’s shoulder, and it is the cutest, funniest thing Newt could possibly imagine.

But he doesn’t rub it in later, when Hermann wakes up. Not today.

**Author's Note:**

> All stupid math jokes shamelessly stolen from http://www.math.utah.edu/~cherk/mathjokes.html


End file.
